Forget orphanages.
A child is always better off as part of a strong, supported family. We’re working tirelessly to close the doors of orphanages forever. At the same time, we fight to keep families together, to reunite them, and to create new ones. Always working with children, for children. Read below to learn about our solutions, and how they’re transforming children’s lives.
We keep families together
Where war, poverty, discrimination or broken child protection systems put pressure on parents to give up their children, we fight to keep families together.
With care and compassion, free from judgement and prejudice, we support families. When they’re at their lowest, faced with the desperate decision to place their child into an orphanage because they can’t see any other way forward, we step in. We sit with them and listen. We learn their story, see their situation. We offer them hope and encouragement before supporting them to find ways to keep their child at home with them.
A child like Sonia.
Sonia’s safely in school again
When Sonia’s father died of Covid her family fell into financial crisis. With schools closed and her mum out looking for work, Sonia spent long periods alone, at risk of being trafficked. In desperation, her mum considered sending Sonia to an orphanage, so she’d at least get three meals a day. Our partner, Child In Need Institute, stepped in to help. Now receiving a monthly widow’s pension, Radha can afford to feed the family and Sonia’s safely back in school.
We reunite families
Too often, we meet parents left longing for their children, or a child who has family but is lost in the bureaucracy of an orphanage. This should never happen. When it does, we’re there to reunite them. With local teams made up of family tracing experts and specialist social workers, we reconnect mothers and sons, fathers and daughters. And we stay by their side, our child psychologists there supporting every reunited family. We make the transition as smooth as possible to help children and families adapt to their new life.
A child like Cary.
Cary's coming home
When Cary was just five years old, her family heard about an orphanage for children with disabilities in another part of Rwanda. They made the heartbreaking decision to admit Cary to the institution, hoping she would receive the extra support she needed there. But orphanages don't help children, they harm them. Thanks to our specialists, she was able to be reunited with her family.
We create new families
For children whose birth families can’t look after them or keep them safe, or those who have no family at all, a new family is best. We work with local people and authorities to find, train and support foster or adoptive parents: adults who we know from experience will love, protect and give security to a child. Now and forever. With our social workers, psychologists and educationalists by their side, new parents give children a place to belong. They offer children the love they need to grow up and thrive in life.
A child like Uwera.
Uwera has a new mum
Uwera spent the first precious years of her life in an orphanage. Never hugged. Only fed once a day. Shouted at if she made the slightest noise. At 2.5 years she still couldn’t walk or talk. Our local Rwandan team worked with the authorities to close the orphanage and find Uwera a loving new family. Thanks to the love and support of her new mum and siblings, Uwera’s gaining strength and confidence every day and enjoying nursery.